Sick and Tired of always being Sick and Tired

I'm way behind on my blogging and way behind on my crocheting. Last couple of days I've been really poorly - not that I can remember the last time I felt well. I spent most of yesterday in an odd state between sleep and consciousness. Due to my lack of night-time sleep unplanned naps have become part of my daily routine. As soon as my painkillers kick in my body wants to sleep and then an hour later when they wear off I'm awake and in agony.

I have learnt another crochet lesson over the last few days. Although I was super proud of my elephants I couldn't help that the stitching between the main body of the elephant and its stubby legs looked different and because of that looked different to the ones in the pictures in the All About Ami blog. I went to the All About Ami Facebook page and contacted Stephanie (the author of the blog) to see if she had any idea why. She knew straight away, she said that the body of my elephant had the "wrong" side facing outwards and that the legs had the "right" side facing outwards, and directed me to a page on her blog to explain it all. Once reading it all I realised that the only thing I needed to change was that I needed to turn the body inside out before I start constructing the legs. I'll put this into practise for my next one, although the stitching might be hard to see as its in a dark coloured wool. Anyone else find it much harder to see where their stitches are meant to be with darker wool?

Yesterday I went to start on Dave's surprise Charmander when I realised that my Orange wool was tied up in one of the rows of the bobbly baby blanket I'm making for my friend. So I finished off a few rows of the blanket to free up the wool and then fell asleep. I woke up sometime later disorientated and feeling super sick. Then Dave came home so I couldn't do it.

Today I've felt slightly better, I got started on the Charmander when Dave went to work. I decided to use the hook size recommended and it seems to be coming along ok. I couldn't carry on with it this evening as Dave decided to come home (how dare he!)

In place of the Charmander I spent my evening starting yet another elephant, this time for my Dad. I decided to carry on using the 2.5 mm hook as I liked the way the yellow elephant came out. However I couldn't find my hook anywhere. I decided to use another 2.5 mm hook I have but don't tend to use as it is much more flimsy than my usual one. And lo and behold I managed to snap it!

Luckily I then found my normal hook under the sofa cushions, despite already having looked there, so I could carry on with the requested royal blue elephant. I feel like the more I make them the quicker I can get them done, which I always find feels like I've accomplished something haha!

Now as it is pretty much midnight here in the UK I am going to bed as my body clock is telling me to, however I'm sure this elephant will see some more work before dawn!

Always follow the instructions!

I know I should have blogged yesterday but I was finishing off the subject of this blog so it was postponed until he was complete:

This adorable little guy is a present for my mum and also the second elephant I have made from the pattern on the "all about ami" blog (http://www.allaboutami.com/). Anyone who has read past entries of the blog may have seen my first attempt, the little lilac guy that I made for myself:

Now as I'm sure you can see there are some definite differences, even though they came from the same pattern, and this is where the title of todays blog came from.

ALWAYS FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!

The pattern advises to use a 2.5/2.75mm hook. I thought that this seemed a little on the small side. So I had a look through the comments and saw that someone else, like myself, had questioned the use of a small hook. The authors reply confirmed that it wasn't a mistake/typo and that a 2.5/2.75mm hook should be used. Still in spite of this, I decided I knew best and decided to use my trusty 3.5mm hook which as you can see from the photo has been used to the point where the paint has worn off. 

Now this wasn't just me thinking I knew better, when I'm trying a pattern I hadn't used before I like to use a hook I'm comfortable with. I also decided this was best after reading the pattern and seeing the, slightly daunting but worth it in the end leg attachment. When I finished I did notice that my elephant didn't look as lovely as the ones on the blog (not that it makes me love my lilac elephant any less). Originally I thought maybe it was just that it was the first time I was following this pattern, and bad ear placement.

However when my mum asked me to make her a yellow elephant I figured I would give it a go with a 2.5 hook just to see if it made a different, and it really really did.

This guy looks a lot more like he's supposed to, and his ears are in the right place. You can also see the difference when the elephants are sat side by side. The lilac is slightly bigger but I think the yellow one ends up with a better overall shape, more spherical than the lilac one who is a bit more boxy.

Also because the stitches are smaller they can be seen less in the photos. The trouble I did have with the yellow one, which I'm not sure was down to the hook, was that there was a slight hump left from where the initial foundation chain had been made. It was easily remedied with a few stitches between the elephants back and belly, but it wasn't something I had to do with the lilac one.

So goes to show, no matter how good your crocheting is or how long you've been doing it for, there's always room for trial and error. Sometimes there has to be a practise elephant. However, one of  my next projects - Dave's surprise secret Charmander, recommends using a size F hook. Now I work in mm so I found a comparison chart which said it was 3.75mm. Now I know I said that its important to follow the instructions, but.... I'm wondering if the stitching will come out better if I stick with a 2.5mm?

WILL I EVER LEARN?

This is becoming a habit!

So skipping days of blogging is becoming my new habit. Maybe my aim should just be to blog as much as my life allows haha. I got absolutely no crocheting done yesterday but my house is lovely and clean. As much as I hate cleaning I love how nice my house looks when everything's done!

I have so many projects listed in the back of my head that I need to write down the patterns for. Of the back of the lovely little elephant that I made I have now had requests for 2 more from my mum and dad. My dad wants his to sit in his work van and my mum wants one for her desk.

The pattern is listed on the All about Ami blog, Stephanie translated the pattern and posted it for free on her blog - lucky










The pattern can be found here: http://www.allaboutami.com/post/83519406448/elephant. The legs are crocheted in a fairly unusual way. Rather than making them separately and then sewing them all you make foundation chains and the crochet them straight onto the body. It makes for some quite awkward crocheting at times  but I love the way it comes out!

I also need need need to finish my sisters peas. Over a year ago I started making my sister a pea pod with peas in.... and its still missing 2 peas. When I started this I hadn't been amigurumi-ing for very long and made a rooky mistake of using different weights of 

yarn for the pod and the peas so the peas take forever to do because the yarn is so fine!

I am also working on a secret project for Dave (boyfriend). He loves Pokemon and I found the most adorable baby Pokemon! They're on devaintart by a user called "aphid777". Definitely worth checking out for Pokemon pattens as they're some of the best I've seen. I'm itching to get started on the Charmander because I think he's adorable. Check them out here: http://aphid777.deviantart.com/art/Four-Musketeers-430909986

I also need to make some dinosaurs. My friend and her boyfriend recently bought their first house and I wanted to make them as a housewarming pattern.

This is the basis for the design, its a free online pattern that I've made before:

The picture on the website

My attempt

The pattern is here: http://greatamigurumi.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/stegosaurus-amigurumi.html

The dinosaur comes up very small as a lot of amigurumi is meant to be. I want a bigger one so I am in the process of enlarging it. If it comes out well I'll post it on here, if not I'll bury it somewhere so no one knows haha!

All this thinking about all the crocheting I need to do has made me sleepy.....think I need another coffee haha.